This paper aims to provide a basis for the improvement of software-estimation research through a systematic review of previous work. The review identifies 304 software cost estimation papers in 76 journals and classifies the papers according to research topic, estimation approach, research approach, study context and data set. A Web-based library of these cost estimation papers is provided to ease the identification of relevant estimation research results. The review results combined with other knowledge provide support for recommendations for future software cost estimation research, including: 1) increase the breadth of the search for relevant studies, 2) search manually for relevant papers within a carefully selected set of journals when completeness is essential, 3) conduct more studies on estimation methods commonly used by the software industry, and 4) increase the awareness of how properties of the data sets impact the results when evaluating estimation methods

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A Systematic Review of Software Development Cost Estimation Studies

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IT Service Management (ITSM) is transforming the management of the IT function on a global scale with major changes in work practices. The intent of this study is to empirically explore how IT service management is adopted in today's global economy. The paper examines the adoption of ITSM processes as defined in the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®). The adoption of operational processes is compared to that of tactical/strategic level processes and the contribution of country, size and industry sector to variation in adoption of ITIL processes is assessed. Institutional theory is used as a foundation for the study. The analysis is based on 623 responses to three surveys conducted in the UK, USA, DACH (German speaking countries) and Australia. 
The study found organisations adopting ITIL implemented more operational level processes than the tactical/strategic level processes. DACH countries exhibit higher ITIL process adoption than the UK, USA and Australia. Adoption varied on industry sector, and in part on organisation size. Based on a discussion of theory and practice, the paper derives insights for academics and industry when introducing ITSM in the IT function.

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IT Service Management: A Cross-national Study of ITIL Adoption

Purpose – To identify the industry in which projects are best planned and executed and use it as a benchmark for improving project planning in other industries.Design/methodology/approach – Based on data collected from 280 project managers, project success and quality of project planning were evaluated and analyzed for four industries – construction and engineering, software and communications, services, and production and maintenance.Findings – Quality of project planning was found to be the highest in construction and engineering organizations and the lowest in manufacturing organizations. This is a result of a few factors, among them the intensive organizational support which is offered to project managers working in construction and engineering organizations. The other three industries limit their support mostly to tactical aspects, such as the purchasing of project management software. The high quality of project planning in the construction and engineering organizations resulted in their ability to ...

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Benchmarking of project planning and success in selected industries

Partnerships and external knowledge acquisition have become important means for gaining access to the increasing number of technologies needed for the development of more advanced products especially in emerging and dynamic industries. A good example is the fast expanding computer software industry where linkages are many and important.This is an empirical study of linkages and their relative importance in different stages of the software development process. The amount of new knowledge generated though different sources and differences between different types of software, such as packaged and customised software, are analysed. The analysis draws on case studies of 92 mostly European software projects, and a pilot study of four projects. It shows the length, type, and relative importance of 718 linkages in the software development process. The data collected shows that there are important differences between tangible hardware and software projects when it comes to the importance of the various linkages and the knowledge acquired

The Use and Importance of External Sources of Knowledge in the Software Development Process

In addition to software’s ubiquity, the amount of code in most consumer products and systems is doubling every two to three years [6]. Consequently, software developers are scrambling to cope with the pressures of systems that are not only a couple of orders of magnitude larger and more complex than those developed a few years ago but also have to meet ever-increasing demands for quality and performance. The management of software development leaves much to be desired. This view was summed up by W. Wayt Gibbs in [6], “Studies have shown that for every six new large-scale software systems that are put into operation, two others are cancelled. The average software development project overshoots its schedule by half; larger projects generally do worse.” In view of the recurrent problems in software development, a significant effort has been invested over the last decade in developing models and identifying practices that can lead to more effective software management. For example, the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) in Bilbao, Spain, has pioneered research in the assessment and improvement of software processes in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense and major U.S. business organizations [7]. The principle motivation for SEI’s work is that “the quality of a software product is largely determined by the qualEUROPEAN SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

Selvan Kulandaiswamy

Papers

Benchmarking European software management practices